​Rabbi’s message for May 8, 2020 - Shabbat Emor 5780

Dear Members and Friends of Kehilat Shalom,

In this week’s parsha, Emor, we read about the mitzvah we enact at this time of year - counting the Omer.  The word “Omer” means a specific measure (equivalent to the tenth of an “efah”) of sheaves of barley.  This barley would be brought to the Kohen (priest) to be ritually waved then sacrificed to G-d on the morrow after Passover.  

The Omer also refers to the period, starting on the second day of Passover, where we are commanded to count each day for seven weeks, leading up to the holiday of Shavuot and the celebration of the first fruits of the harvest. The Torah does not explicitly outline the purpose of the act of counting, other than to identify the specific length between Passover and Shavuot.  Nonetheless, the Sages suggest that the act of counting each day, from one to forty-nine, is akin to the excitement of counting the time towards a moment of excitement — in this case, the number of days for the Israelites upon leaving Egypt until the receipt of Torah at Mount Sinai.  Each year, we make this duration with the same anticipation as our ancestors did leading up to that great moment.

The counting of the Omer, like the three pilgrimage festivals (Passover, Shavuot and Sukkot) is inherently connected both with earth-based agricultural celebrations of the land of Israel, and with the sacred narrative of the Jewish people. The Omer offering signalled when Jews were permitted each year to begin eating the “chadash” — grains from the new harvest. The Wave Offering (Omer hat’nufah), in which the barley was shook in all directions, symbolized recognition of G-d’s dominion over nature and its harvests.  Barley was considered a humbler grain that grew earlier in the season than wheat.  The arrival of Shavuot would be marked by a sacrifice of loaves made from wheat flour, thus thanking G-d for the harvest of the more elevated, preferred food of the people.  

The Omer itself is traditionally observed a semi-mourning period.  It marks a period of time during the Omer in which 24,000 students of the great Rabbi Aviva were either killed by the Romans or died in a plague. (The Talmud says that these deaths were a divine retribution for the students and people not honouring one another as befits Torah scholars.) In reminiscence of that period, it is customary to refrain from holding marriage and wedding celebrations during the Omer.  As well, haircutting is traditionally avoided as a sign of mourning.

Lag Ba’Omer, the 33rd day of the Omer, was the day on which the plague was lifted.  This year, we celebrate Lag Ba’omer on Monday evening May 11 through to Tuesday May 12.  Traditionally in Israel, bonfires are lit on the night of Lag Ba’Omer.  These bonfires symbolize the fiery light that emanated on that date from the house of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai when we was taught, and later went on to share, the deepest knowledge of Torah shared by Rabbi Akiva.

May this Omer period be a time for us to deepen our connection with that which is sacred in our lives, and to take stock of the graces G-d provides us even amidst our challenges.  And may this be a very, very, very special Shabbat for you and your loved ones.